Salaries in STEM

A company has offered me a contract role instead of the permanent position I applied for. The work sounds great, but I’ll be losing out on health insurance and 401k matching. I plan to negotiate, but ...

Started my Monday with a recruiter asking me what salary I wanted before explaining benefits, bonus structure, or equity. How can anyone answer that accurately? Am I the only one who finds this frustr...

How do you know when it's time to move on versus keep pushing for a raise? I've had two conversations with my manager about pay, and both times I walked away with vague promises about next quarter. Pa...

Do we actually have a STEM talent shortage? I see hundreds of qualified graduates hunting for jobs while tech companies claim they can't find anyone. I think the U.S. has plenty of skilled workers, bu...

I referred a colleague four months ago, and they got the job. I know my company has a referral bonus program, but I haven't seen the money or heard anything about it yet. How can I ask HR for an updat...

Unpopular opinion: Some people focus so much on negotiating salary that they ignore vacation time. A few extra days off every year can be worth a lot. What is your personal trade-off point?

How does your company handle pay for fully remote roles in different cost-of-living areas? Do they offer a flat rate regardless of location, or do they scale your salary based on where you live? Our m...

I work with people who openly discuss salaries and others who treat it like classified information. Do salary discussions help employees or just create tension? I genuinely cannot tell.

I’m new to the job market. I'm clueless on what to put on applications when they ask for salary expectations. If I guess too high, will they just reject me or counteroffer? If I guess too low, will th...

What is your opinion on retention bonuses? I got offered one after mentioning I was interviewing elsewhere. Part of me feels valued. Part of me wonders why the money was not available before.

I'm thinking about leaving my current job, but I'm not sure the market justifies it right now. If you switched recently, how much did your comp actually increase, and would you do it again?

I know for a fact I’m underpaid compared to market rates, but I’m still struggling with feeling guilty about asking for more money. Being the only woman on my engineering team definitely adds an extra...

Offers are becoming harder to compare because compensation packages are getting ridiculous. Base salary, bonus, equity, sign-on, retention bonus, pension, allowances. How am I meant to compare 2 offer...

Would you rather? Work fully remote for £10k less....or.... commute three days a week for £10k more. I keep trying to calculate the true value of flexibility and I still cannot decide.

Do you think you should be paid based on where you live? For example, senior engineers on the same team, same years of experience, both working remote but one is living in LA and one is living in Nebr...

I was comparing job offers and realized one company quoted compensation annually while another focused heavily on monthly take-home pay. Which number do you care about most when making a decision?

Has anyone else noticed a dip in salary bands? I'm not talking about current employee pay cuts, just the budget for new hires. Roles that used to be $150K to $170K a few years back seem to be hovering...

Would you recommend your field or company based on current growth rate? I would absolutely recommend Xylem and the water treatment field because everyone will always need a way to get clean water.

Do you think people are more willing to talk about salary now than they were 15 years ago? I think so but I was also not in the workforce 15 years ago so I don't know how much my opinion really matter...

Are companies rarely posting salaries for their entry-level job listings anymore? Every application I fill out forces me to input my desired salary first. I feel like junior roles do this way more tha...